Anyone Have Experience With Electric Heat?

TurdFX4

TurdFX4

Schuylkill Countys Finest
I'm hopefully going to be getting a house relatively soon. I'm stuck on 2. One of which has electric base boards in every room.

I know that can get expensive but is there any benefit of the electric baseboards over lets say oil or coal. I know theyre pretty much maintenance free and can be turned off/on individually depending on the rooms you use

Any info would be appreciated
 
IMO i would steer clear of electric heat...id much rather have either forced air or hot water heat
 
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Only one person I know that had electric heat put in a new house with promises from the electric company of lower overall cost per k-watt used.
After all was installed the cost for his heat was two times my cost of oil heat.
The electric company said it was his location to close to the ocean, well the house was being built in the same location when he talked to them to start with, why didn't they say that then...
I am sure n the future all houses will be electric or solar based electric heat and cooling but right now it is not practical, new or old houses.

When you buy an old house with electric heat you will be buying all of the cost involved so check out the heating and cooling cost over the last ten years or so and compare them to others in the area for their costs. If the house you are buying has low cost or cost you can live with then try for some money off to compensate for future heating changes but if the cost are high, which I believe they will be, look for another house.

Just my opinion and me talking too much but think and compare before leaping.
 
if you can offset the purchase cost of electricity by using solar and tied grid inverter then yes otherwise I would say stick to gas or oil. I like nat. gas fan forced heat myself... but we have electric heat pump out here and it is fine.
 
we've got electric baseboard in our house, it's really not bad at all. can get pricy if you like to keep the entire house like an oven, but keeping them set low in the rooms you use they arn't too bad. a good new thermostat helps alot too, the older ones are much less efficiant. they are also basically maintaince free, never need to be serviced, never need fuel, never need to worry about exhaust gasses backing up into the house. and they are nice and quiet.

if you've got electric heat i would reccomend having a wood or coal stove as a backup / aux. heat scource too, when we use our wood stove the electric heat won't even turn on, heat bills = $000.
 
my grandma has electric baseboards. its not bad at all. she keeps the rooms she doesn't use down low, not off, but low.

us, we have wood heat. like RoadRanger said, heating bill = $0.00
but we have an electric furnace with forced air for backup, but it rarely ever even turns on. only if we are out of the house for a while and the fire burns out.
 
Ok guys thanks for all that. I did forget to mention that this house does have a propane fireplace as well. The house was basically all redone last summer with a new tin roof, new carpet, new deck, new siding and all new pex water pipes. A guy I work with knows the owner of this place and he said that he has had the heat off in all of the house except for the bathroom and the pipes didnt freeze.

Its honestly a toss up between the 2 houses, each has their ups and downs. This house has been redone but it has the electric heat but the taxes are only $404/year.

The other house is a little bit bigger and has a one car garage out back. But its literally right next door to my uncle whom I haven't spoken to since my grandfather passed away ( he was a real dick about the will) but this houses taxes are $1045... but this house has been for sale for over 3 years now, so Im thinking there has to be a reason why its been for sale for so long

Heres links to both houses, tell me what ya guys think

Electric heat one:
http://prudentialgacono.com/pages_schu/209_E_Spring_Street_Tremont.html

Garage one:
http://prudentialgacono.com/pages_schu/201_Vaux_Tremont.html
 
well, im not a fan of either (dont like those style homes lol)

but if i had to pick, id take the electric heat one. the taxes are so much cheaper. of course, it is a smaller house though. which will be a good thing when it comes to electric heat. wont take much at all to heat a 960 sq ft house.
 
There is a difference, but they are all expensive. Depending on the size of the house that fireplace may do ok, but again size of the house vs BTU put out is what you need to figure out. The cheapest way to heat from my experience is wood. It's a big chunk of money for the stove and piping but it is worth it. For me splitting and cutting my own logs, It costs me less than 300 to heat my whole house the entire winter and still have wood left.
 
well, they both look like they would be hard to keep warm since 2 story homes, now the one with the garage is a short sale... meaning it will take time and the bank may or may not accept the offers that come in on it, that is why it has been on the market for so long. google stuff about short sales to learn more
 
06FordFX4 said:
well, im not a fan of either (dont like those style homes lol)

but if i had to pick, id take the electric heat one. the taxes are so much cheaper. of course, it is a smaller house though. which will be a good thing when it comes to electric heat. wont take much at all to heat a 960 sq ft house.
Click to expand...

There's not a whole lot to pick from in our area thats within our price range. This is basically just a place to call home for a couple years until we get it paid off and then start to look at the home we really want and probably rent this one out

Hooligan said:
There is a difference, but they are all expensive. Depending on the size of the house that fireplace may do ok, but again size of the house vs BTU put out is what you need to figure out. The cheapest way to heat from my experience is wood. It's a big chunk of money for the stove and piping but it is worth it. For me splitting and cutting my own logs, It costs me less than 300 to heat my whole house the entire winter and still have wood left.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know. My friend heats his pretty large basement with just a wood stove, throws some pretty serious heat out too

Diablo said:
well, they both look like they would be hard to keep warm since 2 story homes, now the one with the garage is a short sale... meaning it will take time and the bank may or may not accept the offers that come in on it, that is why it has been on the market for so long. google stuff about short sales to learn more
Click to expand...

Ok, I was wondering about that. When I had talked to the realtor about it almost 2 years ago, she said he was selling it for what he owed on it, which was $72,000 at that time

And which ever house we do end up getting, I'm wanting to get a pole building put up and it has to be big enough to throw a 2 post lift in it
 
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i like the electric heat one better myself... lower price & taxes, nice yard that looks big enough & flat for a small pole barn, plus all the other improvements. it's a nice looking house, also the kitchen looks like it's got tons of storage & has a decent layout compaired to the other house. and you can heat it with propane and propane accesories :D seriously i doubt it would be difficult to add another propane wall heater to that house in the upstairs. propane may not be as cheap as wood or coal but it is clean and efficient, my other neighbor heats his house with 2 propane wall heaters for most of the winter, much easyier and cleaner (lest DUST!!) than wood!
 
TurdFX4 said:
Ok guys thanks for all that. I did forget to mention that this house does have a propane fireplace as well. The house was basically all redone last summer with a new tin roof, new carpet, new deck, new siding and all new pex water pipes. A guy I work with knows the owner of this place and he said that he has had the heat off in all of the house except for the bathroom and the pipes didnt freeze.

Its honestly a toss up between the 2 houses, each has their ups and downs. This house has been redone but it has the electric heat but the taxes are only $404/year.

The other house is a little bit bigger and has a one car garage out back. But its literally right next door to my uncle whom I haven't spoken to since my grandfather passed away ( he was a real dick about the will) but this houses taxes are $1045... but this house has been for sale for over 3 years now, so Im thinking there has to be a reason why its been for sale for so long

Heres links to both houses, tell me what ya guys think

Electric heat one:
http://prudentialgacono.com/pages_schu/209_E_Spring_Street_Tremont.html

Garage one:
http://prudentialgacono.com/pages_schu/201_Vaux_Tremont.html
Click to expand...
the first house with electric heat says the fireplace isnt connected, check to costs of having connected first.
 
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